Ever find that when it comes time to start the hiring process for a new employee, you are bogged down with a huge pile of resumes trying to find the right fit?

Rob Carmichael, CEO of CampBrain and AceTech Ontario member, has some tricks that can simplify finding the right fit.

About 5 years ago Rob and his business partner, Shane Miskin, sat down with a marketing expert and one of the first questions they were asked was “what are your company’s values?”  Since this is something which Rob and Shane had never documented, they were set on a path to compose their values and mission.  They established five key words that their company lives around – simple, intuitive, trust, passion & beautiful.  These words are now their way of speaking and are what they refer to when making any decision.

So how can this help you?

Before CampBrain went through this process, they hired based on a certain skill set and knowledge.  Well, when you read their five key words, there is not a lot about skills and knowledge in there; they are more about attitude, empathy and caring.  CampBrain went through a number of hires that were not meeting the company’s promise.  So they analyzed their methodology around this and created a specific strategy to guide who they hire, how they hire and where they look to hire.

Since Rob & Shane have implemented this strategy, their employee turnover rate has gone down significantly. “We’ve hired people more in line with what our values are and so when we bring them in, it feels like a place they want to work,” says Rob, “if they are doing something they love to do in an environment they love to do it in, then the result is that they are going to serve our clients in the way we want them to be served.”

There is a huge fight for talent in the technology world, but since CampBrain is so defined, they are going to attract prospects who are attracted to that definition.  Any programmer or developer has choices about where they want to work.  They could work at a large bank, they could work at IBM, etc. “We do not get a lot of people who apply to us who also applied to work at a bank.  That’s great because if they are going to work at a bank, our environment is completely different and would not be appropriate for them”.

If you are not clearly defined or focused, you are going to attract prospects who are not clearly defined or focused.  So by spending some time on your company’s core values, mission and promise, you will attract employees whose values are in line with your company’s and in turn, will become more successful.